Vendors

A move to introduce compulsory e-waste
management programs by the
Environment Protection and Heritage
Council (EPHC) has been embraced by the
industry at large. But it has raised debate around
which are the most appropriate programs and
policies to implement.

In a communiqué released last week, the EPHC
announced its support for a national e-waste product
stewardship system, claiming studies showed the
broad community has a high willingness to pay for
recycling end-of-life computers and televisions.

The study will be released in July as part of a
Regulation Impact Statement for public consultation
to identify the most appropriate policy mechanisms
for electronics recycling governance. EPHC has agreed
to finalise product stewardship arrangements for
tyres, computers and televisions at its next meeting
in November.

Australian Information and Industry Association
(AIIA) corporate social responsibility policy manager,
Josh Millen, praised the Government’s decision to go
with a national model.

“When we’ve looked at overseas, state-by-state
policies, we’ve noticed there’s overall confusion
and difficulties involved for both vendors and
manufacturers,” he said. “The Government has taken
the right step with this, and now we need to see what
happens over the next six months.

“With the EPHC, vendors will have to get on-board
with e-recycling somehow, although we’ve lobbied
for them to have the option of joining in an initiative,
or having their own policies in place.”
Millen pointed to the
AIIA’s existing Byteback
trial program as a good
basis for a national
scheme, saying it had
been successful as an
information gathering
exercise and provided
good guidance for vendors once an
overarching policy was in place.
The Byteback program has been extended to
the end of the year and now has the support of 11
vendors including latest recruit, Brother.

“We’ve found there are 28 companies accounting
for around 70 per cent of products coming in through
the trial,” Millen said. “In addition, having Officeworks
on-board has given us an interesting retail perspective.”

Fujitsu head of sustainability, Alison O’Flynn,
welcomed the EPHC decision, seeing it as an extension
of all vendors’ obligations for environmental practices.
Fujitsu is part of the Byteback program.

“It’s part of our social responsibility, and should
be built into the total cost of ownership for
organisations,” she said.
“The details still need to be worked through, but
we back the AIIA’s position.”

A spokesperson for HP, which also participates in
Byteback, positioned the program as the preferred
model for waste management delivery.

“It is based on shared and individual producer
responsibility,” the spokesperson said. “HP supports
the development of underpinning regulation for electronic equipment recycling that ensures a level
playing field in Australia.”

Distribution Central CEO, Scott Frew, also welcomed
the announcement from a channel perspective, but
raised concerns about the cost for niche players. The
local infrastructure distributor run a similar program to
Byteback for smaller manufacturers in its portfolio.

“We’ll have to wait and see what legislation
comes out of this, however something that the
smaller manufacturers might struggle with are the
hidden costs – such as freight,” Frew said. “There
is opportunity for the channel to get involved by
helping the smaller manufacturers get the waste to
the depots.”

But while keen to seen mandatory e-waste policies
put in place, not everyone is convinced the Byteback
model will be the right answer. Although he was
supportive of the EPHC’s announcement, managing
director of recycling organisation TES-AMM, Alvin
Piadasa, argued the Byteback program couldn’t
survive in its current format and would require greater
investments from vendors.

“The Byteback program, with the level of investment
from the Victorian Government, is not sustainable. For
it to continue, the participating vendors would need
to make greater investments. However, voluntary
schemes such as this should be a good way to comply
with the compulsory policies,” he said. “I doubt
Byteback will continue in its current form.”
IDC associate analyst, PC hardware, Felipe Rego,
said end-user education is a critical component of the
EPHC’s initiative.

“Creating awareness to consumers will be an issue.
Instead of dumping end-of-life products into normal
rubbish, theoretically consumers will now be able to
drop it in a recycling bin in a convenient distance,
or simply get in contact with the manufacturer to
address the recycling of the item as well,” he said.
An expanded Byteback program, with the
participation of more vendors and national reach,
would be a beneficial solution for all, Rego said.

“The challenge is to get every vendor involved,
but now - with a national e-waste scheme - society
will fully benefit from it. As the program was a local
Victoria-based one, the need now is to expand it on a
national scale,” he said. “This will require investment
that will probably be shared among industry bodies,
vendors and government.”

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